Hemingway:I rewrote the ending to Farewell to Arms, the last page of it, thirty-nine times before I was satisfied.

Interviewer:Was there some technical problem there? What was it that had stumped you?

Hemingway:Getting the words right.

George Plimpton, The Paris Review

Background

I graduated summa cum laude from Yale University, with a
major in Literature. While at Yale, I won five undergraduate writing
prizes. I subsequently received a master's degree from the University
of California, Irvine in the field of Comparative Literature.

I began as an editorial assistant and copywriter with Books On Tape,
which became a division of Random House during my tenure there. My
assignment was to write capsule reviews for twenty-four books a month.
Fortunately, I was a voracious reader, and succeeded in mastering the
128-word and 100-word blurbs, condensing the essence of a book to fit
within those limits.

At Arbor Books, a book packager, where I worked my way up from
proofreader to ghostwriter over two years, I performed triage editing
in short order on manuscripts that presented many challenges. This
"emergency room" experience has made me a better diagnostician of
writing.

During this time, I became a student of two remarkable graduates of
the University of California, Irvine's top-ranked creative writing
program: Lisa Alvarez and Andrew Tonkovich. Through their workshops, I
made a start for myself in both fiction and creative non-fiction, and
have been published in nationally distributed literary magazines such
as the Santa Monica Review. My years in workshop have sharpened my ability to give direct and practical writing recommendations.

To date, I have completed over sixty book-length manuscript editing
projects. Many of my clients are repeat customers or have been referred
by word of mouth. Only an acquisitions editor can promise publication,
but my clients have been satisfied with the progress they have made
with me towards that end.